#this was inspired by harry potter discourse that got WAY out of hand

[greencatalystcomet]

sometimes i admit i am confused about why people complain about younger generations so much. like i keep seeing people say "ugh i hate people born after 2000 theyre so dumb" or something along those lines. "i hate teenagers" i am 19 and, therefore, a teenager. but to be totally honest... i go to work every day, and communicate with people older than me just fine?? most of the people at my job are conservative men in their 30s or 40s. there is one woman in her 40s. i am the only queer person at my place of employment. and yet, despite this, i get along with everybody and communicate with everybody just fine. but then on tumblr and twitter people keep saying "i hate gen z" and im just not sure i understand. i assume it has something to do with the way technology alters our ability to clearly communicate with eachother and i cant help but think.... some of you guys shitting on young people just dont actually want to understand what we're saying. and im sure some young people dont want to understand what you are saying either. but for me personally, every time i communicate with someone, via the internet or in person, i am always trying to understand what the other person it saying. because there is no point in us talking to eachother if we're both just speaking and neither of us are listening. on the internet, i think its easier to type a response and not really try to understand what youre responding to. i dont know what this post is really, i guess just me trying to encourage people to actually try to understand eachother when they reblog eachothers posts and argue in the comments. because im not using the internet to just say things and be on my way. im using the internet to try to actually hear what other people think. and maybe im dumb but... i think thats the best part of the internet, and we should be making use of it more

[forbiddenfantasies1]

I'm just gonna jot down some quick thoughts that may or may not end up being not quick thoughts.

1) I don't know anything about The Show Fans warning about the book exchange but I've also been offline a lot recently so I clearly missed something. I'd definitely like to hear about it though cause I didn't get voted Most Opinionated in high school by NOT being nosy.

2) Being upset about the word inclusive is wild to me. It was an exchange that welcomed all interpretations of Jaime and Brienne--book, show, modern, cracked out AUs, whatever. Imaginary offense seems apt here but I'd argue the same description could be aimed at the umbrage taken with the word. Pointing out that something happening in inclusive isn't just a way to point an accusing finger and the exclusive thing, though it can be. It's also an apt description though as it was an inclusive exchange.

3) I mean yes, show fans dominate the tag but it inspired more content. The show revitalized the Jaime and Brienne tag and it became a hugely thriving tag with tons of amazing fics from all canons. It wasn't dominating in a "fuck these book readers" way. The show brought fans, like it or not. Nik and Gwen brought fans. Also yes, a lot of writers tag all the GOT/ASOIAF tags. I think we all, regardless of what brought us there, have to scroll through work that doesn't interest us. It's just part of how being in a fandom works, and yeah it sucks sometimes but so be it. But that's also how I found a random Harry Potter fic I loved so it balances out for me.

4) Honestly I wasn't offended at a book canon exchange because I also love the books. I was considering joining until I read the character guide and realized that our interpretations of Jaime and Brienne, and what makes their ship so great, were vastly different. I didn't throw a tantrum or meltdown or vomit though. I only talked lighthearted shit in DMs like an adult.

5) Honestly the part of this post I hate the most is the dogpiling comment. I watched that entire conversation happen on Discord and it wasn't dogpiling. It was a back and forth, reasonable discussion with many people on each side. A mod of the server asked that people rec fics (during an exchange) without being passive aggressive because it could be considered rude to the writers or giftees. One person took offense to the request because they had recced a fic with the words "It's a show fic but..." and since the mod had received numerous messages about similar things, she took the time to say "hey from now on when we rec fics, we can just include what canon/genre they are, or specify the things we liked." Some people took that as an attack, others took it as a request to be more (TW) inclusive. It spiraled into a long, mostly respectful discourse which honestly just made me think about how widely varied perspectives and sensitivity levels are. I just took it as a "Hey some people are being hurt by this, unintentionally, so can we try and be mindful?" My knee jerk reaction to that is "yes, of course" not "I wasn't being mean!" but again, people differ.

6) I don't know that I have a point to any of this. I love the books, and I love a lot of the show. I love Nik and Gwen. I love Jaime and Brienne, in most any form (including the one where they're rabbits). I love a lot of the people I've met through this fandom. I hate show fans who shit on book canon fans and I hate book fans who shit on show canon fans. The books gave me "I dreamed of you" and "so he did" and so much more. The show gave me "It's yours" and "Rise Ser Brienne of Tarth" and so much more.

7) I think book fans feel possessive of the ship because it got drowned out in show fics. I think show fans feel invalidated because of the caveat so often attached to their show canon works. I'm grateful for the show fics drowning the tag because it went from a handful of fics to thousands and saved my 2020 in a big way.

8) If you think Jaime is mean and cruel, then I don't care which canon you like because we are reading and watching a different man. If you think the most important thing about Brienne is that she's ugly and is hyper aware of it, same applies.

An exclusionary fanfic exchange implying that those who like the show are somehow lesser than you is nothing to be proud of.

Ok so, I was gonna be nice and all and joke around about show fans lack of taste but I thought better and maybe this deserve a proper response since it seems like y’all feel as if you can say whatever you want but don’t have to hear what others want to say it back.

Ever since season 8 ended, y’all show stans have been on some bs huh? I honestly don’t get it. When the exchange was announced, there was a “warning” for it coming from y’all’s side as if a book exchange needs a trigger warning or something. And don’t think I didn’t notice that another exchange was happening around the same time and the word “inclusive” was thrown around as if by accident and not as a dig to some imaginary offense y’all think book shippers have said to y’all just because they rather read… book fics. I can personally testify about the bs that I’ve seen myself, like people dogpiling on a fan just because they complimented a show fic saying that it was very good and how it fixed the show’s writing. As if they called y’all’s mother the devil by stating the obvious (that the show sucks). As if saying that (that the show sucks) is a personal offense to y’all. Don’t y’all see how much this is a self report?? Like, y’all ALONE are the ones associating liking the show = being called dumb, lacking of taste or whatever else y’all think we are calling you for liking the show. We aren’t the ones saying that. We aren’t saying shit actually. We are just enjoying our thing but even that seems to make y’all pressed.

You guys fucking DOMINATE all the tags and then want to claim book fans are “exclusionary” when we, “BOOK SNOBS”, are the ones who have VERY LITTLE fic and content. If we don’t do it ourselves, we definitely won’t get it from y’all. Which is fine by me, because I don’t care if other people don’t like what I like. And I’m more than happy with creating the content I want to see. But it's SUPER SELFISH and EMBARRASSING that the ONE TIME book fans want to get extra content, we need to read passive aggressive bullshit. When WE ARE THR ONES who need to dive through thousands and thousands of show content IN BOOK TAGS because y’all can’t tag things properly for shit, nvm all the Nikolaj and Gwen content that have absolutely several nadas to do with Brienne and Jaime and asoiaf. Y’all make 10 million exchanges per year and we don’t complain, but suddenly a book only exchange is cause for meltdowns crying throwing up?

(And don’t think I don’t know you only sent this to the book exchange mod who isn't as well known and beloved (me) because y’all know if it was Ell receiving that, that it would backfire.)

So like, as an exclusionary j/b stan, let me be very clear: I don’t like the show, I don’t care for the ship version of the show, and I won’t stop creating spaces where I can discuss and read content about the book characters of my ship without having to deal with UNSOLICITED opinions about them from people who throw a crying fit every time someone as much as hint that the show version doesn’t hold a candle to book j/b. Artists want to produce their art without having to read UNSOLICITED opinions about the book characters that come across as disrespectful just because y’all rather simp for d&d and can’t conceive why others don’t feel like it. If you don’t like book fics or the book version of the ship, my suggestion is:

Don’t read it.

[ramblings-of-a-mad-cat]

ok i know you said that reblog didn’t just refer to Rakepick (i’m assuming that’s who you meant by “her” but correct me if not) but i don’t really see how it could refer to her character in the first place?? if you could elaborate that’d be great cos i feel like it’s flying right over my head lmao

Happy to! As I might have predicted, I did get several messages about the post I reblogged so now I’ll try to clarify my feelings on this, as I know it’s been a touchy subject in the past. (This ended up being quite long, so...) @dat-silvers-girl and @heleneplays I thought you might find this interesting.

The original post was talking about shipping and the difference between enjoying character dynamics and actually projecting onto characters to see the relationship style you would want in your own life. I feel like both of these things can happen and that’s okay, but the point was that shipping two characters doesn’t mean you condone any implications that such a relationship would have in real life. Enemies to Lovers is a great example. 

In regards to fiction, I took that mindset a step further and talked about characters in general, notably villains. The same way we shouldn’t assume that people like a certain ship because they want a relationship like that in their own life, I don’t think it says anything about a person if a villain is their favorite character. Very often, villains are the most interesting or fleshed out. They have a unique relationship with the story itself as they are often the driving force or representative of its message. You could say that Harry Potter is a story about love and family...and Voldemort exists as someone who cannot comprehend either, to demonstrate their importance. Anyway, the point is that there’s nothing wrong with liking a villainous character. 

When I was growing up, it didn’t seem like this was a contested idea. It was actually common, particularly for villains who were seen as “cool” and many of them were. You’ll find few people who don’t agree that Darth Vader or Darth Maul look cool. However, in recent years, I’ve noticed that purity culture has spread to the point where liking a villain is considered questionable. It no longer seems to be enough, necessarily, that one is merely enjoying the villain as a character. Just like the idea of shipping two characters now means one must condone that kind of relationship in real life, sometimes it seems as though liking a villain is now tantamount to condoning their actions. 

Then again, there are people who feel sympathy for villains and attempt to justify their actions. Sometimes it’s due to a personal attraction. It’s a meme that people get horny for villains, and there’s probably some overlap there with folks who lean toward the “projection” style of shipping I talked about earlier, but never mind that. Other times, this sympathy can overlap with seeing potential in the character. There is a fine line, of course, between rooting for a redemption for the villain and arguing that they did nothing wrong in the first place, but these days it seems as though rooting for a redemption for the “wrong” kind of villain is something people take as an insult. (Severus Snape comes to mind.) Alternatively, people also seem to take it as an insult if you don’t believe the “right” kind of character deserves redemption. (This happens a lot with Princess Azula.)

Now all that being said, there is absolutely nothing wrong with hating a villain and just wanting them to go to hell and die. Like, that makes perfect sense. There are villains out there that we love to hate, characters who are so despicable that most people would agree they deserve a slow and painful death. Joffrey Baratheon is a great example. (Actually, a lot of Game of Thrones characters would apply here...) If a villain inspires true loathing from you, then paradoxically that also means they’re great, because they’ve been written in such a way that you as an audience can feel the evil. But this can become complicated if they overlap such despicable villains with the ones who have potential to be more interesting. It becomes complicated because of the aforementioned binary that now seems to be prevalent. The idea that everything one likes in fiction reflects what they believe should go on in real life.

Which brings us to Rakepick. 

Wow, we finally got here. I appreciate your patience. Rakepick is that character who has overlap. Whether we like it or not, she was presented as an ally for two years of the game’s story, before her betrayal. She spent a lot of quality time with MC and the other apprentices. We got to know her. It is not at all surprising, I don’t believe, that some of us see that “potential” to be more in Patricia Rakepick. But on the other hand, she sure has gone above and beyond in the effort to be one of those villains you just hate, given what she’s done. Having been part of this discourse, I think what’s going on is that the players who still feel a connection to Rakepick feel attacked by the players who ruthlessly condemn her. The players who condemn her feel insulted by the idea that players still like her after the terrible crimes she’s committed, after what she did to Rowan. No one is wrong here. Rakepick is a fascinating character who’s done unspeakable things. We do not need to fight about her. 

Everyone has different opinions about characters for different reasons. I have villains that I simply love because I see something more in them, or because I just think they’re cool. I also have villains for whom I feel the same contempt people have for Rakepick. Villains who I cannot stand and it makes me cringe to see their actions justified or considered - Cersei Lannister comes to mind. Likewise, there are just as many heroic characters that I love and adore, and some others that I find problematic. Others still that I flat out despise because of what they’ve done, villain or no villain, like Nozomi from SMT. Albus Dumbledore is probably the character I hate the most in fiction, even though he’s one of the good guys. I’m “Anti-Dumbledore” but when it comes to Rakepick, I don’t even like to use the term “Antis” because when a character is unquestionably a villain...isn’t it the default setting to hate them and root against them? 

Here’s the main thing. They’re fictional characters, first and foremost. They aren’t real, so it’s not like they know if we’re defending or condemning them. All of us are part of fandom to enjoy their story and share our enjoyment with each other. I feel like that should come before anything else. No matter if Rakepick is one of those villains you find “cool,” no matter if you love to hate her with how evil she is, no matter if you see more to her and wish she wasn’t considered a villain...or even if, like most of the HPHM fandom, you simply can’t stand her and root for a shallow grave...all of us have these opinions because we like HPHM. That matters more than our specific opinions about characters. Even villains. Even ones who have crossed as many lines as Rakepick.

[paradiselostbythedashboardlight]

Quarantine, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Wrote 430,943 Words of Prose in a Year

As we are coming up terrifyingly fast on a full year of quarantine with no end to the pandemic yet in sight for most people, I’ve been taking some time to reflect on the last year of my existence in a state that most people now refer to as quarantine. Since March of 2020, I, like most other sane people in my country, have stopped traveling, going to stores, seeing all but a limited group of other humans, and begun having recurring nightmares about being in crowds without a piece of cloth over my nose and mouth.

Suffice to say, it has been a bit stressful.

The other thing that I have done since COVID-19 began rapidly spreading across the globe last year is write over 430,943 words of fiction. 

The number seems insane to me still. That is (approximately) one Gone With The Wind, one entire Lord of the Rings series, or the first four Harry Potter books. That is still sadly not yet War and Peace (but who knows… the pandemic isn’t over yet).

So now that I am looking back, I find myself with one question: how did this happen? Why did I do this? What does this mean about my life this year?

Since apparently I answer best by writing a lot, let’s begin at the beginning. Let me tell you a story. I’ll keep it short, I swear.

Part 1: Blast From the Past

In March of 2020, I was still in the midst of an academic semester. There was a long academic document to write and a class to teach. However, as quarantine abruptly robbed me of most of my usual commitments, I was suddenly thrust into the position of having more time on my hands than I knew what to do with. Consequently, I decided to break out the Nintendo Switch I’d gotten for Christmas and revive a childhood interest in video games.

And boy did I. I played the games I owned for all they were worth. I played them during the evenings when I had no social engagements to attend. I played them during the Zoom meetings I was already struggling to pay attention to. By the end of March, I had finished one game, and it had set the wheels turning in my brain.

Here’s a fact about me: I don’t usually tend to write or read a lot of fanfiction about things that I consider really really good. Basically, fanfiction for me has always been an impulse born from incompletion or imperfection. I see no need to add to a perfect story (although I happily consume and create fanart). But for something enjoyable and yet slightly unsatisfying? That’s fanfic territory, bud.

So by April, I had developed a sort of epic fanfiction for this video game I was playing. It was one of those magnum opus kind of ideas, a grand retelling of the story with a huge sprawling plot and Themes (™). 

At first, it was merely a thought experiment that lived only in my head, a sort of entertainment to ponder in the hours before falling asleep. What changed? Well, a friend of mine decided to also write a fanfiction on the same video game and she kindly consented to let me read it.

Suddenly, I was ravenously hungry to read and to write and to share and to consume. I wrote a hundred thousand words of this fanfic in April and into early May, sending each chapter to my friend and being spurred onward by her kind comments. 

The fic became a gargantuan endeavor full of strange little challenges I set for myself. It was a canon-divergence, requiring plotting, worldbuilding, a darker and grimer tone. For some reason, I decided to write each chapter from a different character’s perspective, making the final product into a series of essentially short story character studies which together formed a plot.

By the end of May, the story was published for the world to see. It was well-received, although not particularly popular by fandom standards. And that was the end. I had gotten out my pandemic crazies, the semester was over and now I could move on. I had made my peace with the source material, plumbing all of the little details that I wanted to examine and creating a narrative that I found satisfying.

It was over.

Part 2: Summer Lovin?

Except that it wasn’t.

Confession: as I had been posting my giant fanfiction, I had also begun to explore the fan community itself, mostly curious to see some nice art and gather a bit of demographic info about what was popular within the community. As a result, I found a fanfic recommendations page. Among the recommendations was one author who kept popping up and i finally decided to give the fic a read.

Woah. It was good. Like, really good. Like, professional quality writing and themes that seemed designed to appeal to me. I devoured everything that the creator had posted in a week and then subscribed to eagerly wait for more.

As June rolled around, I realized that I had a problem on my hands. My great big gen masterpiece was finished, but this author had gotten me hooked on something else, something with a nefarious reputation online: shipping.

The term du jour for this seems to be “brain worms” so let’s just say that reading other fanworks had given me some brain worms. Inspired this time not just by the source material of the game, but now the fan community itself, my mind began to develop another idea.

I wrote the fic, about 11k, in a single afternoon of frantic writing. When I finished it, I knew it was one of my strongest pieces. It had just come together, a combination of all the thought that I’d been brewing up and a stylistic execution that just worked with the story I wanted to tell.

I posted it on a new account. Shipping seemed vaguely shameful to me still and my mom reads the other account.

To my surprise, the fic blew up. It got so much more attention than my long fic ever had. Even more significantly, a fan artist actually drew a gorgeous comic of the pivotal scene, completely out of the blue! I was essentially thunderstruck. Honestly, it was probably the first time in my life that I’d ever received so much positive reinforcement from a piece of writing.

While I’d written short stories for undergrad workshops, they’d never been particularly good and I’d never gotten particularly great feedback on them. I’d applied and been rejected by more MFAs and literary magazines than I could count. I’d pretty much resigned myself to writing for an audience of me and me alone (which I don’t mean to sound tragic about, writing for you is great and fun!)

But receiving so much support and praise and feeling like I’d made other people happy or sad or moved? There’s nothing better.

This makes my decision to write another fic for the ship sound vaguely cynical, the action of a person driven by an addiction to praise. I mean, no lie, aren’t we all a little addicted to approval?

But my next fic was another long one, an 80k passion project modern AU that I dreamed up while spending a slow summer alone with my books and only able to leave the house for long rambling walks in the woods. The premise was essentially about characters attending a five year college reunion, something that I myself had missed due to COVID in May of the same year. The fic quickly became a way for me to process thoughts on a lot of topics in my life ranging from relationships to politics to mental health to classical literature.

This fic was also received with far more attention than I was used to and, as a result, I finally joined the notorious Twitter dot com where I found people talking about my fic unprompted, eager to follow me and like my every random thought.

I can’t say that this process was not without its ups and downs. Fandom has changed, in many ways for the better, since my last engagement with it during the 2013 Supernatural days on Tumblr. While fan friendships are often idealized or demonized, they are pretty much like any other human friendship (okay, maybe a little bit more horny on main). There is potential for amazing connection as well as pettiness. But in a year where many people suddenly had no social spaces that were safe anymore, I’m glad that I found a new line of communication with the world.  

So I kept writing fics for the ship, producing a lot of work that I am genuinely proud of and making connections with other people who enjoyed it enough to leave a comment.

To conclude this section, I was in fandom again. While I had not seriously engaged with a fan community since around 2014, I was back with a vengeance. And I had discovered an important truth about what unlocked my ability to write more than I ever had before: community support.

Not simply the kudos and the views. It was the comments. The discourse. The discussion. To add and contribute my thoughts and ideas to a greater network of thoughts and ideas that fed off of one another.

Often I had seen people complain about there not being enough fanworks for particular media or characters. Now I knew the secret. The comments and the community created the works. If I commented on other people’s fics, the more likely they were to write more. I made a resolution I have tried to keep, to comment on any story that I legitimately enjoyed reading, even if I had no particularly intelligent thing to say about it.

Part 3: A Novel Idea

By late October, I had produced a considering oeuvre for my ship of choice and was enjoying slowing my pace as I planned a few future projects.

Remember, though, how I mentioned not having engaged with fandom for the past 5 years? Well, that didn’t mean I hadn’t been writing.

For the past 4 years, I have won NaNoWriMo and completed 4 novels of over 100k each in length. These projects have been massively fun and improved my confidence with executing stories at the scope that I desire.

And so in November 2020, I settled down to write another novel. November is always a sort of terrible time write a novel if you work in academia, but this year, I had more time than usual. I set out to write a comedy fantasy novel, something mostly lighthearted and full of hijinks in order to pretend away some of the quarantine blues (which by this point were well established in my psyche).

This year in particular, I was reminded that writing a novel is… harder than fanfic. That seems like a very obvious point, but I’d written novels before. Suddenly, though, I was realizing how much a novel requires you to set up the world and the characters, while fanfic can be pretty much all payoff all the time.

While the fanfic flowed in wild creative bursts of energy, the novel required diligence of another sort. I wrote 2,000 words every day for two months. It was a grind. Sometimes, it was a slog. 

And sometimes it just wasn't good. The thing about writing your own novels is that the first draft is way more likely to be not good. You’re balancing a lot and it’s easy to let a few balls that you have in the air drop for a chapter or two, with no recourse but to go back and edit later.

I finished the novel by writing a final speedrun of 6k on new years eve, ending my 2020 with another project under my belt. No one has read it. Not even I have reread it.

I’m still glad that I wrote it. I’ll write another one next year. No one will read that one either.

Sometimes, we write for ourselves and no external validation is necessary.

Part 4: Where are they now?

January of 2021 is somehow now behind me, which is terrifying. I’m still writing. Mostly fanfic, although occasionally I go doodle around with some original ideas that are more conceptual sketches for the next novel.

As for the fanfic, I think I still have a few more good ideas left in me, but  I will probably leave it behind before the year is out. That feels a little bittersweet, a sort of temporary burst of fun and friendship that I wonder if I’ll ever experience again.

Coming to the end of this reflection, I suppose I should make a summative statement about what it all means.

In the end, it might not mean a lot. There are some small takeaways. 

It turns out that encouragement makes you write more! Who knew? Also, more free time makes you write more! Wow!!!!

The point that I think this reflection exercise has shown me, the point that I think matters more than any other, is that writing is a way to process my thoughts. Even if it is through the lens of ridiculous video game fanfic or novels about sad wizards, my writing is my way to make sense of my own mind. 

And sharing that is special. If you share it with online strangers, with your family on Christmas Eve, with your close friend who has become even closer and dearer to you since she let you read her work, or just with your mom (the one personal legally required to read your damn novel if you want to share it). To share writing is to give someone a little peek at your beliefs about the world.

And right now? When we’re still isolated and bored and scared and in desperate need of distraction? Binge some TV, play Nintendo, read a book. Take in other people’s thoughts.

But put down your own somewhere as well. It’s a conversation.

And for once, it’s a conversation that doesn’t have to take place on fucking Zoom.

[geekmedium]

I’ve been thinking about making a blog for the better part of a year now, but I’m finally taking the plunge now.

But that left the problem of what my first post should be. I knew it wasn’t a big deal, but personally I wanted it to represent as a whole what I plan to do. Then I read the comic Lanfeust and knew I wanted to do this recommendation.

For those of you who don’t know, Lanfeust is a French Fantasy comic about a young man going on a quest for  “The Ultimate Power” with his companions and lovers. I highly recommend it if you can get your hands on the English translation, although if you can read the French original even better, because that means you can finish the third series, “Lanfeust Odyssey.” What makes the comic great is that it is a lot of unashamed fun. It has cartoonish violence, blatant fanservice, enough drama to create tension and spicy relationships but not too much to become depressing, and inventive fantasy concepts all over.

Now why did I make this my first post. Well first, it is a comic, and I will probably blog comics more than anything else. Second, this comic is popular, at least in France, and I don’t want to pretend I will only be doing niche, out-of-the-way stuff. Expect a lot of post about One Piece. Despite that, I have seen next to nothing about it on Tumblr, which I can unfortunately say about a lot of the stuff I like, so I’m creating this blog to rectify that. And finally, it contains a little bit of meta/analysis; I got into tumblr through a few blogs that did good analysis of pop-culture icons like Spider-Man and Harry Potter, so I was disappointed to see so much of tumblr barely contains meta like the kind I like. Too many people are ready to talk about their politics instead of stuff they actually like.

So this blog is a fun thing I want to do in order to add much needed discourse on stories and characters that don’t get enough of it. Hopefully, by doing this I can inspire others to write meta posts instead of shitposts, even if they write something that completely disagree with me.

[the-desolated-quill]

Good Omens, Queerbaiting And Death Of The Author - Quill’s Scribbles

I confess this is the most reluctant I’ve ever been to write a Scribble. When this topic came up, I remember just groaning and putting my head in my hands because I knew that, due to the nature of what I tend to write about on this blog and the fact that I’m an out and out biromantic demisexual queerbo, people would be asking me to contribute to the discourse. And honestly I don’t particularly want to. I don’t get to enjoy many films and TV shows anymore thanks to the industry doing their very best to ruin everything they touch. Can’t I just watch one good TV show without being dragged into some ideological battle?

Okay. Guess I can’t really put this off any longer.

On the 31st May, the long awaited adaptation of Good Omens was released on Amazon Video. I thought it was quite good. Not perfect. There are some things I could criticise, but overall it was a worthy adaptation of the source material and it was very enjoyable to watch. And that seems to be the general consensus with both critics and fans. However over the past couple of months since its release, a ‘controversy’ began to emerge within the fandom regarding the show’s main characters Aziraphale and Crowley. See, a large proportion of both the media and the Good Omens fanbase have interpreted the angel/demon double act as being gay, but this has sparked a backlash from some fans with them going so far as to accuse the show of queerbaiting as the show never explicitly confirms the characters’ sexuality. This then led to a backlash to the backlash, sparking a whole debate as to what constitutes good LGBT representation. Not only that, Neil Gaiman, the showrunner and original co-author of Good Omens, has stubbornly refused to confirm one way or the other whether or not Aziraphale and Crowley are more than just good friends, which has added further fuel to the fire.

Now before we go any further, I just want to disavow one argument that I see cropping up a lot and that really gets under my skin. That Aziraphale and Crowley can’t possibly be gay because they’re not men. They’re genderless beings that feel no sexual attraction. The implication being that the characters are asexual, but the way you hear people going on about it, the Ineffable Husbands seem less asexual and more like soulless robots. First off, you do know asexual people feel love too, right? We’re not Vulcans. Second, can we stop this ridiculous logic that they can’t be gay because they’re not men? It reminds me of the ‘controversy’ that surrounded Mass Effect 3 when BioWare confirmed that you could play as a gay male Commander Shepard. When people pointed out to the critics and haters that you could already play as a gay Shepard if you picked FemShep and pursued Liara, they retorted by saying that Liara doesn’t count as a woman because she’s a ‘monogendered alien.’ And my response to that was... so? She still looks like a woman and she still uses female pronouns. If FemShep is attracted to her, there’s a good chance she might be gay. It really is that simple. Aziraphale and Crowley may be genderless, but they look like men and use male pronouns. So if they were attracted to each other, they just might be gay. Period.

Anyway. Tangent over. Lets talk about Aziraphale and Crowley. You might be wondering where I stand on this whole issue. Do I believe that Aziraphale and Crowley are gay? Well honestly it depends on which version we’re talking about here. If we’re talking about the book version, I would say probably not. Don’t get me wrong. I’m almost certain book Aziraphale is gay as there are a number of references that seem to suggest that. His bookshop is in Soho, which is famous for its thriving LGBT community, the narrator mentions him going to a ‘discreet gentlemen’s club’ in the 1800s, and there’s of course this brilliant line:

“Many people, meeting Aziraphale for the first time, formed three impressions: that he was English, that he was intelligent, and that he was gayer than a tree full of monkeys on nitrous oxide.”

So yeah. There was never a doubt in my mind that book Aziraphale was gay. (And before anyone comments saying that the next line mentions that Aziraphale isn’t gay because angels are sexless unless they make the effort, let me ask you something. Who, out of all the characters in the book, does he make a genuine effort for? Aha!). Book Crowley on the other hand isn’t quite so clear cut. Sure there are occasional flashes of something, but it could easily just be interpreted as being gestures of friendship rather than romance. Personally I always saw book Crowley as being more aromantic/asexual. In fact their relationship reminded me a lot of my relationship with my best friend. I’m more like Aziraphale, due to being very camp, somewhat old fashioned and often quite emotional, whereas my friend is like Crowley in that she displays a facade of confidence to mask her insecurities and is extremely loyal to her friends. Now please note I’m not trying to destroy anyone’s personal headcanon here. I know for a fact many LGBT people have interpreted and drawn inspiration from Aziraphale and Crowley’s relationship for nearly 30 years since the book first came out in 1990, and I wouldn’t dream of depriving anyone of that. I’m just merely describing how I personally interpreted the characters when I read it.

So, while book Aziraphale is almost definitely gay in my opinion, I personally don’t think they were anything more than just good friends. Do I think the same about the TV version? Actually no. In fact completely the opposite. I think TV Aziraphale and Crowley are 100%, unquestionably and unashamedly in love with each other and this view is supported by the extra material Neil Gaiman has written for them, most notably the 30 minute long cold open of the third episode that shows Aziraphale and Crowley’s blossoming relationship over the course of human history, as well as how the show frames them. We hear the kind of swelling, orchestral music you would hear in a romance when Crowley saves Aziraphale’s books from a WW2 bomb, the scenes where the two argue about running away to Alpha Centauri are presented as being like a legitimate breakup (with the addition of some random passerby telling Aziraphale he’s ‘better off without him’), the other angels occasionally refer to Crowley as being Aziraphale’s boyfriend (albeit in a mocking way), and the way Michael Sheen and David Tennant play the characters makes them feel much more like an old married couple rather than being simply friends. There’s even a wonderful moment in the third episode where Crowley asks Aziraphale if he could give him a ride somewhere, to which Aziraphale responds “you go too fast for me Crowley.” It leaves very little room for doubt in my opinion, and yet Neil Gaiman refuses to verbally confirm this, even though the actors and the director have expressed numerous times that they interpreted the characters as such. Not only that, but the writing and filmmaking leaves just enough room for plausible deniability, never explicitly confirming the relationship. So the question remains, does this count as legitimate LGBT representation or is this just a very advanced form of queerbaiting?

Well first it would be useful to talk about what queerbaiting actually is, because a lot of people arguing against Good Omens don’t seem to fully understand the term. Queerbaiting is when a creator hints at a possible same sex romance without ever actually confirming or depicting the relationship. A recent example of this would be Albus Dumbledore in the Harry Potter series. 

JK Rowling first ��outed’ Dumbledore as gay back in 2007, saying he was in a relationship with the dark wizard Grindelwald, but unless you read the interview, you would never have known this because the book doesn’t provide any sort of hint or clue or reference to that relationship. Worse still, when given the opportunity to rectify this in Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes Of Grindelwald, Rowling chose instead to downplay the relationship between Dumbledore and Grindelwald significantly. This is queerbaiting. Implying a character might be gay or promising to introduce a gay character only to then backtrack or not fully commit. Another example would be Avengers: Endgame where the Russo Brothers announced there was going to be a gay character in the film only for it to be some nameless guy who’s only on screen for about a minute. It revolves around luring people in with the expectation of LGBT representation only to then snatch it away once they’ve got bums in seats.

(Also, just to clarify, queerbaiting is not when a bisexual or pansexual character becomes romantically involved with someone of the opposite sex. Yes it’s important that we see more bisexual and pansexual characters and yes it’s important we see more same sex couples on screen, but do NOT conflate the two. Deadpool’s pansexuality, for instance, isn’t suddenly invalid just because he has a girlfriend).

So, with this in mind, does Good Omens fit the criteria of queerbaiting. Well the sexuality of the characters are often the focal point of many interviews, with the director and actors explicitly describing Aziraphale and Crowley’s relationship as ‘a love story.’ Most notably Michael Sheen, who plays Aziraphale and who has been carrying a torch for the Ineffable Husbands since Good Omens came out. But unlike JK Rowling and the Russos, the makers of Good Omens can back up their words with content. As mentioned above, the way the show frames the relationship makes the implication quite clear. There’s even a bit where Crowley thinks Aziraphale has been killed and he leaves the burning bookshop while ‘Somebody To Love’ is playing in the background. It isn’t really very subtle. So, by my understanding, queerbaiting doesn’t seem particularly accurate when talking about Good Omens. The issue here is one of presentation. The overt subtext is all well and good, but does the fact that there’s no explicit confirmation of their relationship make it invalid? To answer that question, we must look into another relevant term. Queercoding.

Queercoding is when a character is given the traits typically associated with those commonly attributed to gay people, such as effeminate behaviour or ostentatious dress sense. This is used often as a way of getting queer relationships past the censor. Implying a character might be gay without explicitly confirming it for fear of the studio or publisher putting their foot down.

While queercoding is often intrinsically linked to queerbaiting, it’s worth noting that while queerbaiting is always seen as a negative (and rightly so), queercoding is neither positive nor negative. It’s merely a contextual device and can be positive or negative depending on execution. A positive example of queercoding would be Deadpool.

While the Merc with the Mouth has never been officially outed as pansexual, both the comics and the movies in particular have framed him as someone who doesn’t conform to heteronormative expectations. The marketing of both movies present Deadpool in traditionally feminine poses as a way of mocking and commenting on how gender is perceived in these kinds of tentpole blockbusters. The comics often make fairly explicit references towards Deadpool’s sexual flexibility for the purposes of humour, such as in his interactions with characters like Spider-Man or Thor.

The movies follow suit. The first movie is littered with moments where Deadpool alludes to being not entirely straight. He occasionally uses gay slang, we see his girlfriend Vanessa penetrate him with a strap-on during the sex montage, and there are frequent references to how sexy Hugh Jackman is, most notably near the beginning when Deadpool describes how he had to give Wolverine a handjob in order to get his own movie. The second movie meanwhile takes it a step further. Not only is the entirety of Deadpool 2 essentially one big allegory for how members of the LGBT community cope with abuse and discrimination, we also see Deadpool express a sexual interest in Colossus many times, the extended cut even going so far as to depict Deadpool trying to give him a blowjob.

Now as I said, Deadpool has never been officially outed as pansexual. That information comes from one of the comic book writers on Twitter. The comics and movies have never verbally confirmed it. We never hear Deadpool describe himself as such. But to say he’s not queer would be absurd because he clearly is. That’s how he’s framed and presented to us across the majority of media. What makes Deadpool a positive example of queercoding is how we view the character. He’s clearly extremely comfortable with expressing his own sexuality and feels no shame in his antics. While the majority of his queer moments are used for the purposes of humour, we’re always laughing with him, not at him.

Now lets take a look at a negative example of queercoding:

This is Moriarty from the BBC series Sherlock written by Steven Moffat and Mark Gatiss. Sherlock is without a doubt one of the worst adaptations of the canon that’s ever been made and the show’s treatment of Moriarty is a big reason for that. When he’s first introduced in The Great Game, when he’s posing as Molly’s boyfriend, Sherlock deduces that he’s gay based on really no evidence at all other than that he puts product in his hair and his underpants are showing. It’s ostensibly playing on that stereotype that any man who takes pride in their appearance isn’t masculine and therefore must be gay. (if that were true then David Beckham would be the gayest man on the fucking planet). While it becomes clear at the end of the episode that this was just an act Moriarty was putting on to fool Sherlock, he never really loses the metrosexual image. He boasts about his ‘Westwood’ clothes, we see him prance and preen like some over the top camp supervillain (more on that later) and he makes numerous double entendres that imply he’s interested in men, specifically Sherlock. There’s even a moment in The Reichenbach Fall where we see Moriarty sitting on a throne wearing the crown jewels. Ha! Do you get it? Because he’s a queen!

What makes this form of queercoding more offensive than Deadpool is, again, how we as the audience are supposed to perceive him. Moffat and Gatiss want us to laugh at Moriarty’s camp behaviour and they clearly find the prospect of shipping Moriarty and Sherlock utterly absurd, as demonstrated in the episode The Empty Hearse where we see the Sherlock fan club suggest Sherlock survived the fall because he and Moriarty were secretly lovers. This bit was there for no reason other than to take the piss out of Sherlock fans who read too much into the show’s intentional subtext. Also, crucially, Moriarty has no real character or backstory other than as a gay stereotype. He’s a lazily written caricature who serves no real purpose other than as a homophobic punchline. There’s a lot more to Deadpool than just being queer. With Moriarty however, there’s simply nothing underneath.

Moriarty is also an example of how queercoding is most commonly applied to villains. There are countless examples of this across various media over the years. The Joker from Batman, for instance. Ursula from The Little Mermaid. Scar from The Lion King. In these cases, whether intentionally or not, queercoding plants ideas of gender identity into the viewers’ heads. A male supervillain like the Joker is presented as being eccentric, arch and incredibly camp while Batman, the hero, is big and strong and serious and honourable. A manly man. Likewise, Ursula is presented as butch and unfeminine, scheming and malevolent, whereas Ariel is attractive and sweet and innocent. The ideal woman. Queercoded villains have been used to demonise the LGBT community for decades by presenting an ideal, hetronormative image of what a man or woman should be like, battling an antagonist that doesn’t fit in with traditional gender roles. Obviously there’s nothing inherently wrong with having a camp male villain or a distinctly unfeminine female villain, but it’s worth bearing in mind where these ideas originally came from and the impact it could potentially have.

So lets bring this back to Good Omens. The queercoding of Aziraphale and Crowley is obvious and it’s never presented in negative terms. (there’s a moment where Shadwell refers to Aziraphale as a pansy, but considering the man is a complete moron who draws eyes on milk bottles and thinks nipples are the gold standard way of identifying a witch, I think we can safely say he’s not to be taken seriously). In fact their relationship is incredibly sweet and endearing. Except... I can understand why Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman weren’t explicit in expressing the characters’ sexuality when the book was first published. It was 1990, both Pratchett and Gaiman were still relatively fresh faces and Western society’s attitudes toward homosexuality weren’t quite as progressive then as they are now. But it’s now 2019. Things have changed. Gay characters are appearing more frequently in books, movies and TV shows, people in general are more accepting of the LGBT community and Gaiman is now a hugely successful author with a lot of influence in the industry. Why not just make the relationship explicit?

Well there are two ways of looking at this. The first is that it really doesn’t need to be explicit. You would never hear a man and a woman talk about how incredibly hetero they are, would you? Actions speak louder than words after all. But when the two characters in question are of the same gender, suddenly the whole thing becomes a massive debate to the point where unless someone comes right out and says they are gay, people simply won’t buy it. Deadpool, tragically, has suffered from this with obnoxious frat boys deliberately glossing over the obvious queer subtext and hijacking the character for their own self-aggrandisement. This really shouldn’t be the case and this whole ‘straight until proven gay’ mindset isn’t the fault of the show. It’s entirely the fault of the viewer. The second involves our last topic of discussion. The Death of the Author. (no pun intended. RIP Pratchett).

Death of the Author refers to a literary essay written by the theorist Roland Barthes in 1967, which argues against critiquing a piece of literature based on authorial intent. Basically, once a book or movie or TV show is released to the general public, any relation to its creator becomes immaterial. The work in question must stand on its own and be judged independently. The intention of the author no longer matters. (I’m simplifying obviously, but that’s basically the gist of it. If you ever get the chance, read the essay yourself. It’s a fascinating read). Gaiman appears to be a firm believer in this philosophy. On his Tumblr account, @neil-gaiman, when asked about the the relationship between Aziraphale and Crowley, he often refuses to comment, invoking the Death of the Author mindset. It’s up the reader/viewer to interpret the characters. If you think they’re gay, then they’re gay. If you think they’re just friends, then they’re just friends. Some could call this a bit of a cop out, and you’re entitled to do so, but I understand where Gaiman is coming from. We’ve seen writers like JK Rowling get into trouble for queerbaiting, saying that she always intended for Dumbledore to be gay, but never actually showing any real evidence for it in the text, and Gaiman doesn’t want to fall into the same trap. Plus it demonstrates that Gaiman respects the views and interpretations of his fans, unlike Rowling who responded to criticism of her queerbaiting on Twitter with GIFs of people sticking their fingers in their ears and ‘blocking out the haters.’

In some ways I do feel very sorry for Gaiman. On the one hand he wants to stay true to his and Pratchett’s original vision, but on the other hand he doesn’t want to disappoint the hundreds of fans who do view the characters as being gay. Good Omens has been cited as an extremely positive influence on many queer readers, some even going so far as to say that it was this very book that allowed them to finally accept their identities and come out of the closet. Heartwarming stories like this can be found all over the web and hopefully many more will emerge now that the TV adaptation has been released. If Gaiman were to suddenly turn around in an interview one day and say ‘oh. No. Sorry. Aziraphale and Crowley were always intended to be just friends. You’re all wrong’, it would destroy people who invested so much in this relationship. Likewise, if he explicitly confirmed in an interview that the two characters are definitely gay, people would either accuse him of queerbaiting if the show doesn’t fully live up to their expectations or accuse him of shoving his political opinions down their throats. He can’t win either way really. That being said, I can’t help but respect Gaiman for sticking to his guns. It demonstrates that he’s confident in his skills as a writer and his ability to make his intentions clear in the text, that he respects the ideas and opinions of his readers and fans, and that he also respects the ideas and opinions of the cast and crew of the Good Omens TV show. While Gaiman has refused to confirm one way or the other, others like Michael Sheen or  director Douglas Mackinnon have made their views very clear. Aziraphale and Crowley are in love. That’s their interpretation and they have every right to it.

So do I believe Good Omens is queerbaiting? In my opinion, no. Does that mean I believe it’s faultless? Again, no. If the intention is to depict Aziraphale and Crowley as being lovers, then I think they could have done a bit more. Obviously I’m not suggesting a full blown sex scene or anything like that. Even something as simple as them holding hands or hugging each other would have done. Some physical intimacy of some kind. Because as it stands, Good Omens does share problems with a lot of other TV shows in how they present same sex couples, in that they’re consciously aware that they are presenting to a heterosexual viewer. This is why a relationship between two women is often sexualised and eroticised for the titillation of straight men whereas the relationship between two men can often be quite chaste. Very rarely do you see two men making out or doing anything beyond a quick peck. Good Omens sadly fits into that camp, though just to be clear, I’m not blaming Neil Gaiman or the show for this. I’m merely saying that this is part of a wider systemic issue that needs to be talked about and addressed as the industry moves forward. (Hell, that might as well be be the title of my entire Tumblr profile). Also, whether you believe the relationship between Aziraphale and Crowley is platonic or romantic, it does not change the impact this story has had on many LGBT readers nor the fact that the story is about love. It’s important to bear this in mind because while, yes, it is important to have this discussion, we can’t lose sight of the positive message it conveys with regards to building bridges and closing divides between opposing groups.

“And perhaps the recent exertions had had some fallout in the nature of reality because, while they were eating, for the first time ever, a nightingale sang in Berkeley Square. No one heard it over the noise of the traffic, but it was there, right enough.”

[academiablogs]

The Place for Folklore in Fiction: A Q&A with Katie Masters!

In many ways, oral tradition defines writing more than writing itself. Long before we had written language and nice keyboards from which to express it, we spoke around fires, sending folk tales and fairy stories from village to village by word of mouth.  So, it comes as no surprise that we, as the modern storyteller, return to those roots when we write books.

Old stories find their way into new ones, whether we plan it or no. Scandinavian and Germanic folklore creeps along the edges of Lord of the Rings. Creatures and concepts from the English/Welsh populate every book in Harry Potter. That’s not even mentioning series like Percy Jackson, Artemis Fowl, and The Once and Future King- their entire existence reliant on myths and legends. One good Google search also reveals layers and layers of discourse on whether or not these authors “got it right”. Readers often hold authors to standards of their old stories- regardless if several versions of said “story” exist in the first place.  Authors suddenly become the voice for old storytellers, and are held accountable for whatever results from it.

But this still begs the question; is there truly a right way to write folklore? Or are authors simply storytellers all over, imparting their interpretation of ancient ideas.

For this, I will turn the blog over to fellow author, Katie Masters, a folklore enthusiast and the writer behind Brenna Morgan and The Iron Key!

Caitlin: A warm welcome to Academia, Katie! First off, tell us a bit about yourself and your book.

Katie: Thank you for the warm welcome! I can feel the warmth all the way here in very hot Southern California. I’ll take it though! I’m terrible at writing short things—just like I find myself incapable of trying to not talk a lot. But I’ll try here! I was born and raised in Southern California and was raised on a boat and tipi in the middle of a mountain range with no running water or electricity! I love books in almost any genre, but I especially love fantasy, folklore, and mythology. My grandmother (and her many siblings) were born in Ireland, and so I have a big soft spot for Irish mythology and folklore. Hence, why I wrote my book, Brenna Morgan and The Iron Key. My book is about 16 year old Brenna Morgan, who finds herself in rural Ireland. She accidentally stumbles upon a dying Good Neighbour (that’s ‘fairie’ for those who don’t know!) who tricks Brenna into promising to find and protect a child hidden in their realm, and uses the last of her life to protect Brenna. She sort of forgets to mention the child Brenna just promised to protect might destroy the world. Oops. Now Brenna is left dealing with a race of people that aren’t like fairytale books said they were, and no idea what she’s actually gotten herself into.  

Caitlin: Already sound like a great story! So, how much was Brenna Morgan inspired by mythology/folklore, and in what ways? Katie: In every way! I was really tired of fairytale books only touching on Fionn Mac Cumhaill (aka “Finn MacCool”), selkies, and leprechauns. And of also putting them into the category of small, tiny, winged creatures with cat eyes. I just couldn’t read another book misrepresenting them. There’s so much more—and the folklore is so much richer with amazing characters and history! So I’m determined to show the world these forgotten but amazing characters, I’ve found. I actually traveled in Ireland several times for research, and spoke to Eddie Lenihan (if you don’t know him, please google him. He’s amazing and one of only a handful of people with the official title of seanchaithe). I also translated ancient texts, and my Irish friends made sure my Gaelic and slang was correct as well. My writing for this book is even influenced by some of the more traditional ways of Irish storytelling, and I have many characters that are meant to be a modern version of real, famous people who lived and interacted with the Good Folk. Brenna herself I modeled after a couple of famous Irish heroes, especially her quick temper and ability to think on her feet. The one thing I loved about Irish heroes of old was that as strong as they were, they relied on their brains others for help more than their strength (Though they had tons of it!), and were more than willing to admit when they made a mistake most of the time! 

Caitlin: So, given how much you work with mythology, do you feel that books should stay true to source material in order to best use these stories? Can you really “stay true” to stories if many fairy and folk tales change overtime?  

Katie: This is a great and really touchy, tough, question. Like anything in life, I believe in looking at both sides, and see positives and negatives for both sides. On the one had. it’s great that people can take fairy and folk tales and rehash them into something new, something a new generation can get interested in it, and maybe even delve deeper to check out the older mythology. And a lot of authors over the decades have done exactly that. On the other hand, by merging many different countries folklore and mythology, you then get the problem that a culture and its history gets lots and muddled, even from the very country it comes from.  And that loss is awful, at least to me. People become misinformed, information gets twisted, and then no one knows where anything comes from anymore. That saddens me.

I, personally, stayed as true as I could to the source material as possible. Where I might have ‘strayed’ was in the thought and reminder that life moves on—even for the Good Folk. They wouldn’t stay the same. They lived lives up until this point, and I tried my hardest to make sure that the choices they made (even how their homes or clothes looked) would reflect that change (or their unwillingness too!). I tried to be as sensitive as I could to staying true to the ‘source material’ of Irish mythology and folklore, and anything I changed, I changed as a ‘natural progression’ for them. I think in this day and age where everything is merging and unifying, we’re losing a lot of folklore and mythology for the sake of “it all being the same thing” and “let’s make them bigger, faster, stronger. No one cares about mythology anymore!” And that’s frustrating, at least for me. 

Caitlin: Very insightful! What’s your advice for other writers with regards to handling folklore? Katie: Do. Your. Research. I mean, actual research. Find actual books from the country or from writers, historians, and folklorists from that country.  Many people will just research by going to google, Wikipedia, and even the children’s section for ‘folklore’. That’s fine…but it’s also often full of contradicting statements because it’s often posted by people who only glanced at ONE book and felt that was good enough to put on Wikipedia. Please read actual books from the country’s mythology you’re planning to use. That isn’t to say you can’t deviate from the mythology if you want to do! But at least do research on the real thing and have a good (or at least logical) reason for changing it if you still want to use it as a ‘true to mythological character’.    

Caitlin: Lastly, do you have a favorite folk or fairy tale you can share? 

Katie: Oh man. You’re killing me. That’s like asking what your favorite book is. I have so many and in so many genres! If we’re talking Irish mythology my two favorite stories are The Wooing of Etain, and Conn-eda and the Golden Apple. One of my favorite tales as a kid growing up was Catherine and her Destiny, and The Twelve Dancing Princesses.  

-- Thanks so much for joining us today, Katie! Katie Masters can be found lurking on Facebook, Twitter, and her website. Brenna Morgan and The Iron Key will be released with Fire and Ice YA on May 2nd, and its book trailer can be found below!